Class Acts: Andrus Maandi, Rocky Hill High School

"I want to focus on research in technical advancements, such as medical devices and applications." - Andrus Maandi, Rocky Hill High School

"I want to focus on research in technical advancements, such as medical devices and applications." - Andrus Maandi, Rocky Hill High School (Courtesy of Andrus Maandi)

JESSE RIFKIN, jrifkin@courant.comThe Hartford Courant

Andrus Maandi was running hurdles at a track meet his junior year and was on pace to break his personal best time. But on the last hurdle, he tripped and fell.

"I never heard the end of that from my teammates," said Maandi, who was valedictorian of Rocky Hill High School.

Maandi served as National Honor Society treasurer, on the student council, and as a centerfielder on the varsity baseball team. He was nominated to attend Boys State and won the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute award for math and science.

This fall, he will major in biomedical engineering at the University of Connecticut on a four-year, full-tuitino scholarship.

"I want to focus on research in technical advancements, such as medical devices and applications," Maandi said. This summer he will intern at Henkel, a multinational industrial corporation with a Connecticut location in Rocky Hill, performing tests on anaerobic adhesive products.

His college essay was about his involvement in the Estonian Boy Scouts. "I have been going there since I was five," he said, "including this summer."